Fisker's loan under the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program was frozen early in 2011 after it missed numerous deadlines for Karma production.

Roughly $190 million of the $529 million commitment had been disbursed.

The privately-held Fisker, along with publicly-traded Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA], were criticized as "loser companies" by unsuccessful Republican candidate Mitt Romney during this fall's U.S. presidential campaign.

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Things started out well for Fisker Automotive they did show a lot of promise as an interesting new brand. But they do look at the moment to be headed in the same direction as the DeLorean Motor Company, produced a small amount of neatly designed cars, went bust, and survives years later in automotive history thanks to loyal enthusiasts. I think one thing Tesla got right was backing up their great designs with their own revolutionary powertrain, Fisker has their own great design but the powertrain is the product of hired partners so all Fisker really has is their image. Image is important but the engineering is your substance, and Fisker doesn't really have substance it's just an image.

Wayne
Posted: 12/7/2012 2:13pm PST

This is such an amazingly comfortable and stylish car to commute with (or take a long road trip). Handling is amazing and the electric drive gives a super smooth, powerful launch. In a few years electric drive will become the luxury car 'standard' for the same reasons power brakes and power steering became standard. The glitches mentioned by some of the bad reviews were fixed months ago. Too bad the US government, press and investors are too caught up in global warming denialist politics to appreciate the gem of a product Fisker has created.

Fisker initially hired partners to help with the powertrain but they internalized that long ago and already have a much more compact and efficient 2.0 powertrain design for the Fisker Atlantic.

Wayne
Posted: 12/7/2012 2:17pm PST

In other words the press needs to get off their duffs and try commuting with the car instead of parroting one another's bad reports on the Karma. Fisker's image problem IS simply the 'bad', lazy press, not grounded in current reality of the product.

John
Posted: 12/9/2012 7:22am PST

@Wayne: I'm afraid I have to disagree. I've driven the Karma twice, the second time for almost an entire day in a wide variety of mixed uses. It's a striking design but a somewhat compromised and flawed car.

Would be curious to get your reactions as an owner to the full review I wrote:
http://www.thecarconnection.com/overview/fisker_karma_2012

and to the GCR article I published at the same time:
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1073213_2012-fisker-karma-plug-in-is-real-but-will-company-survive

John
Posted: 12/9/2012 9:43am PST

The Atlantic has to be a better produced unit than the Karma for Fisker to survive. And the Atlantic exists on paper today. Will take 2-years to get to public consumption.

CDspeed
Posted: 12/7/2012 5:12pm PST

I do like the driving experience in the Karma, it moves beautifully. The only one thing on my wish list for the Karma is a bit more performance. I don't care what it's top speed is I just think it would be better if the 0 to 60 time was at least in the low 5 second range. One thing that made the Tesla Roadster great was the 0 to 60 in 3.9, it looked like a sports car and moved like one to. And being that the Karma has design elements from both Aston Martin and BMW I don't think it's too much to ask for the Karma to have the ability to at least keep up.

Roy
Posted: 12/10/2012 6:22pm PST

I guess I mis-judged Fisker's financial position. I thought with all the money they raised early on in the year, that they should be pretty flush. I also assumed that the cars lost in the hurricane were insured, but maybe less than 100%? If the insurance did not cover the full cost, it could add up to a big loss. This news seems to put Fisker in a little more desperate light, although I hope they succeed I think their only chance is with the Chinese. I also hope I'm wrong and Fisker can make it without being acquired by a large company, and this is just a fishing expedition, not do or die.